We are experiencing overheating issues on our Framework 13 laptop with Intel Core Ultra 7 155H. Unless on Power Save mode, the laptop easily gets super hot and the fan noise is not pleasant. For example, the temperature easily reaches 100℃ when running Terraria (and other games) on Balanced / Performance mode. Just opening Steam can make it reach 80℃. The idle temperature is 45 - 55℃.
In comparison, the situation is clearly better on the other Framework 13 laptop we have with AMD Ryzen 5 7640U. There, the temperature consistently stays around 80 - 90℃ when running Terraria in balanced / performance mode and the fan noise is way less annoying. Idle temperature is 30 - 40℃.
We’ve been in contact with Framework customer support for quite a while. We’ve ruled out many things but nothing helped so far:
The laptop runs CachyOS with KDE Plasma, but we also did tests in Fedora Live (two times) and nothing was different (so not an issue with the OS).
It doesn’t matter if the AC is plugged in or not.
It doesn’t matter if the expansion cards are installed or not.
We replaced the heatsink and fan module. It didn’t help.
Today we replaced the whole mainboard. It didn’t help.
It was checked during the replacement that the thermal paste was all in good condition.
There are a few other posts talking about this kind of overheating issue with 155H, but we didn’t find anything helpful there.
Questions:
Is this behavior common / normal? Do 155H users usually experience this? (Though, it’s annoying no matter if this is commn or not.)
Should we keep trying more tweaking or should we simply get a different mainboard (like AMD Ryzen 7840U) and sell the 155H?
The Ultra 7 is going to generate a little more heat by comparison to the Ultra 5 or AMD 7640u series chip. Limiting the processor cores might be a solution to look at to keep the heat at bay.
Not all thermal paste is the same, likewise, not all installations of them are good too. Too much paste can be an issue, also not even enough contact (or enough in general) on the heat sink can also cause issues.
One method to try would be running the board outside of the laptop in standalone mode to see if it is cooling itself substantially better under these conditions.
With the board outside the case when it is starting to ramp up in heat, press down gently with a large blunt object on the heat sink (using your finger risks getting burned) if the temperature goes down significantly then there is either a contact issue or thermal paste issue (or both).
Elevating the laptop even just a little to increase airflow underneath the back of it will help as well.
The case getting hot is the device doing its job of dissipating heat. There are some cooling pads that others have used that blow a little bit of air on the underside of laptops that help in these cases too.
Just some different ideas to think about with this issue.
In the end, we simply purchased a new 7840U mainboard and replaced the 155H with it.
After some tests, we are now much more satisfied with the temperature and performance behavior: For example, on performance mode, the laptop stays consistently at 80℃ when playing Terraria without lags, with little fan noise. Some games produce slightly more fan noise but the temperature always stays below 80℃, most of the time below 70℃. In contrast, with 155H the temperature had big jumps and could easily reach 100℃. Idle temperature is now also noticeably lower.
The general performance also seems to be improved at the same time. There were a few cases where it lagged even on performance mode, and now all those issues are gone with the new mainboard. 7840U feels more “stable” and “calm” than 155H.
Anyways, the conclusion is that 7840U turned out to be a much better choice for our use case.